The Global Rise of the Right

The Global Rise of the Right

Amid the rise of right-wing parties to governments across Asia, Apoorv Tiwaricautions against prematurely writing off the Leftist ideology.

Apoorv Tiwari is an alumnus of IIT
Kharagpur and currently working as an associate with Swaniti Initiative.
The opinions of the author are independent of his association with
Swaniti.

The past
year has seen elections in several democracies in different parts of our
complicated globe. Since the beginning of 2013, voters have exercised
their franchise in South Asia (India, Pakistan, Nepal, Maldives and
Bangladesh), the far-east (Japan, South Korea), and Europe (including
national elections in several countries as well as the recent elections
to the European Parliament). Despite the diversity in terms of culture,
geography and issues across these elections, there have been two
essential points of convergence. Firstly, the mandate for the winning
party/coalition has been decisive in most cases. Secondly, these
elections have ushered in a revival of the political “right”.

This trend
is particularly evident in Asia, where three of its largest democracies –
India, Japan and South Korea – have voted centre-right political
formations to power after decades of centre-left rule. While their
policies may differ based on specific requirements within their
countries, it would be safe to assume that Narendra Modi, Shinzo Abe and
Park-Gun-Hye mark a definite departure towards the right when compared
with previous regimes in their respective countries.

In this
context, many have begun to write political obituaries of the Left in
Asia. In India, even the Grand Old Party which has ruled us for more
than five decades has been reduced to an embarrassing minority in the
lower house. What then do these left/centre-left parties do? The most
logical answer would perhaps be that they reinvent themselves and
embrace some elements of the “right”. They might be advised to look
beyond entitlements and doles as strategies for social inclusion, and
accept the merits of free-market capitalism.

Logical and
intuitive as such suggestions may be, the strategy to challenge the
right-wing by blindly moving to the right may be fraught with political
risks, and may weaken democracy in India. Firstly, a rainbow of parties
spread across the ideological spectrum always offers more choices to
the voter. In this election, people voted for the centre-right, even
disregarding traditional determinants of voter behavior such as caste.
However, that does not imply that the centre-left has become irrelevant.
If anything, it may be relevant to remember that it was “crony
capitalism” rather than socialism that was the principal reason behind
the many scams that beset the previous government.

Additionally,
it may be pertinent to remember that during the 80s, when there was
still a fair degree of consensus on socialism as the only viable
economic strategy in India, the BJP’s professed ideology of Gandhian
socialism found few takers. It was only religious mobilization of the
masses that made the BJP truly national party in the early 90s.
Similarly, the Congress or the Communists cannot hope to defeat the BJP
by abandoning their commitment to socialism. What is needed is a
cleansing of socialism to rid it of some of its hypocrisy and
distortion.

In our urge
to celebrate this period of political stability and a China-like
unfettered rule for the next five years, we must also remember that
political stability must contribute to a deepening of democracy in
India, and not erode its very foundations.